Cruise ship VISIO sails off the coast of Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province on July 5, 2026. Photo: VCG

Cruise ship VISIO left the Port of Tianjin in North China's Tianjin for a three-day, two-night cruises-to-nowhere voyage from Saturday to early Monday, the Global Times learned from immigration authorities at the Port of Tianjin on Sunday.

The event makes Tianjin the first city in the northern part of the country and the second city nationwide to offer cruise-to-nowhere voyage services.

Unlike traditional cruises, the new itinerary involves the ship leaving from and returning to its home port, the Tianjin International Cruise Home Port, without making any stops, cruising solely on the high seas.

Over 2,700 passengers were on board the 105,000-ton passenger vessel, setting a single-day record at the Tianjin International Cruise Home Port this year, the Tianjin Dongjiang border inspection station told the Global Times on Sunday in a statement.

The three-day, two-night voyage offers passengers a relaxed, immersive experience without the need to rush from one port to another. A second voyage will depart from Tianjin on Monday.

The cruises-to-nowhere voyage aims to inject new vitality into the marine leisure and tourism market in northern China and effectively enrich the supply of domestic short-haul seaside vacation products, according to Xinhua News Agency.

On June 5, Shanghai issued China's first entry-exit permit for such cruises. One day later, the Adora Magic City, China's first homegrown large cruise ship, departed from Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal with over 4,100 passengers on board, marking the launch of the country's first-ever cruise-to-nowhere voyage.

Tong Danying, an official with the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, said at the time that cruises to nowhere are not a simplified version of traditional cruises, but a brand-new product that turns the ship into the destination itself, creating a new consumption scenario, according to Xinhua. 

Xie Xie, a research fellow at the China Waterborne Transport Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday that passenger demand, onboard experiences and onboard consumption levels all exceeded expectations during Adora Magic City's June voyage, underlining the initial success in China's efforts to explore diversified cruise services.

With more cities coming onboard to launch such services, cruise-to-nowhere voyages are expected to stand a fair chance of gaining further market share in China, Xie said, noting that such voyages meet demand from young Chinese who don't have longer holidays to fit the relatively fixed schedules of traditional cruises but still hope to get a taste of cruising on weekends.

After such an initial experience, passengers could later take a traditional cruise, thus boosting the development of the country's cruise industry, Xie said.

Figures show that China has seen booming cruise tourism, with total cruise passenger throughput in 2025 surging 25.3 percent year-on-year.

China's cruise ship industry could contribute 500 billion yuan ($74.33 billion) in output to the country's economy by 2035, the People's Daily reported in August 2023.